IITM Open Quiz 2018 Finals

IITM OPEN QUIZ 2018
ENTER THE JUNGLE

IN MEMORIAM
VIKRAM JOSHI
RAM KUMAR (KABBALA)
BHARGAVI S

CHEFS
Gokul Goebbels Nair
Ferril Freak Samal
Paul Wunderbar Martin
Anand PS I Love You
Life is a repeat Dhur
Hathim Sinner Mohammed
Sukruth Solo
Dregs Diogenes

1
Apart from the more famous 3 R's of reading, writing and
arithmetic, what are these the 3 R's of?
Replacement: avoiding/replacing the use of
Reduction: using fewer number or to make more of less
Refinement: to mitigate potential distress

2
This is the second studio album by
English big beat producer Fatboy
Slim.
The name of the album is derived
from the marketing slogan of a
particular brand.
Keeping in mind his stage name as
well as elements from the image,
name the album.

You’ve come a
long way, baby
Was the marketing slogan
for Virginia Slims

3
_____ was "one of the few Christian names I could find beginning with
the letter". The man later explained in a 1990 interview for Q
magazine that that part came from a tailor's shop called _____'s that he
passed on a train, and he liked it because it had "that [Pop]
connotation but it was a tailor's shop, and I thought, Well, this whole
thing is gonna be about clothes, so it was my own little joke calling him
_____."
What name is he talking about?

Bowie explaining the
name Ziggy

4
The Ponce de Leon hotel in Florida was revolutionary in many ways
when it was first constructed. It also has to its credit two firsts.
It was the first hotel to have steam heat - not necessarily a
necessity in a Florida hotel and something else, which was
achieved by collaborating with a famous American. This innovation
required a member of the staff in each room to operate
something, despite the fact that it was neither difficult not
complex. What innovation?

Electric lights in every
room. The staff were
required to operate the
switch.

5
Which book written in 1993, with a 3 word title, begins thus?
Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy. A
private matter is something one doesn't want the whole world to know, but a secret
matter is something one doesn't want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to
selectively reveal oneself to the world.
If two parties have some sort of dealings, then each has a memory of their interaction.
Each party can speak about their own memory of this; how could anyone prevent it?
One could pass laws against it, but the freedom of speech, even more than privacy, is
fundamental to an open society; we seek not to restrict any speech at all.

6
We may not have seen Barbara Marie Koshay’s face but
we’ve most likely seen her from behind. As equipment or
costumes can’t be changed within five seconds, they
executed a swap with her instead. She wore a bleached
version of a costume, which was then slightly tinted to
match the lighting in the room.
Where have you seen her?

Wizard of Oz. She was the
body double for Judy
Garland during the sepia
to colour transition scene.

7
Who talking about which book?
The urge to write this book has a different origin. In 1951 the Editor of the (...)
asked me to write an article. In that article I argued that ________ was the only
religion which a society awakened by science could accept, and without which
it would perish. That it makes [a] slow advance is due to the fact that its
literature is so vast that no one can read the whole of it. That it has no such
thing as a Bible, as the Christians have, is its greatest handicap. On the
publication of this article, I received many calls, written and oral, to write such
a book. It is in response to these calls that I have undertaken the task.

B R Ambedkar on
Buddha and his
Dhamma

8
Howard ________ was an English chess master who is
generally regarded as having been the world's
strongest player from 1843 to 1851. He was also the
principal organiser of the first international chess
tournament in 1851, which made England the world's
leading chess centre and caused Adolf Anderssen to be
recognised as the world's strongest player.
However, chess players remember him as he
promoted a novelty, something that bears his name
and is still used in tournament chess.
Who and what?

9
This image was used in the
poster for a movie starring the
person in the picture. In the
movie, there is a mention of the
artist who inspired this painting
while they discuss another
painting.
ID the movie and the painting
that inspired this painting.

10
Tom Chavez of Rapt, a company that helps with digital
marketing, discovered that the presence of a certain
option led to the lapse of over $100 million in
advertising income for a certain company.
What company and what option?

11
Claudia Alta Taylor was known by a different name, surname
her husband’s and first two words referring to the common
name of members of the order Coccinellidae. The first word is
also what she went on to become, given she was the second in
line from 1960 for a few years. She might’ve been given this
name so her initials would match that of her husband’s.
What name do we know her by?

12
A dilemma is described to be in this form, but it is technically not one
as there was someone else in the same room, spying on him.
This spy was later involved in an incident with two conflicting stories.
One explanation centres around inexperienced climbing. The other
one claims it was voluntary i.e. the spy chose what the spied didn’t at
the end of his dilemma.
What form are we talking about? Who is the spy in question?

GOLF SLANG
8*5
+10 for everything

Example:
“Criminal but you got away with it”
is an OJ

1
“You know you shouldn't take it on, but it's just too
tempting.”
Named after a female character in a 60’s movie as the
above description reflects the state a young man finds
himself in with respect to this character. 5 points.

2
Two hole specific terms:
1. If you have a disaster on the 6th hole, what
could you call it? 2.5
2. In a similar vein, if you had a disaster on the
9th, what would you call it? 2.5

3
If you had to take two shots in a bunker, what
would you call it? 5 points
In a similar vein, if you managed to make three
good shots out of nowhere, what would you
call it? 5 points

4
The term AB is used to describe a situation where
you should have used a “driver.”
On the other hand, if you shouldn’t have used a
“driver”, the term used is AC.
AB and AC are names, A is not a name. 5+5

5
There are two terms used to refer to a situation where the
player has hit his ball into the water.
The first term is a reference to a character in a 70’s film who
ended up “sleeping with the fishes.” 5 points.
The second is used to imply that “it’s underwater and you won’t
find it,” a reference to a 1990’s movie. 5 points.

1
“You know you shouldn't take it on, but it's just too
tempting”
Named after a female character in a 60’s movie as the
above description reflects the state a young man finds
himself in with respect to this character.

2
Two hole specific terms:
1. If you have a disaster on the 6th hole, what
could you call it?
2. In a similar vein, if you had a disaster on the
9th, what would you call it?

3
If you had to take two shots in a bunker, what
would you call it?
In a similar vein, if you managed to make three
good shots out of nowhere, what would you
call it?

Adolf Hitler
Lee Harvey
Oswald

4
The term AB is used to describe a situation where
you should have used a “driver.”
On the other hand, if you shouldn’t have used a
“driver”, the term used is AC.
AB and AC are names, A is not a name.

5
There are two terms used to refer to a situation where the
player has hit his ball into the water.
The first term is a reference to a character in a 70’s film who
ended up “sleeping with the fishes.”
The second is used to imply that “it’s underwater and you won’t
find it,” a reference to a 1990’s movie.

13
Dracula 2000 is an American Vampire horror
film. The film presents a slightly different origin
story for Dracula. He is a man who tried to hang
himself but failed, and has to spend 2000 years
as a Vampire as punishment for his crimes.
His origin story in the movie also explains his
weakness to something, as it reminds him of his
crime.
Who is Dracula in the story? What is he weak
towards?

14
This is the plural of a Latin word meaning work. Solve for the following
portmanteaus.
a. A term for dramatic works/concept albums belonging to a certain
genre of music. R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet is an example.
b. The title of a Looney Tunes episode with a load of classical music
references. Portmanteau a common phrase from the universe with
the plural of the Latin word.

Hip-hopera.
What’s Opera, Doc?

15
Flag designs of a certain city from
before and after 2017 allude to the
city’s history. The new design is more
accurate and sets the country apart
from its neighbour regarding certain
issues.
What do the four symbols represent in
the first flag?
What does the 2017 design
accommodate in the flag’s narrative?

Fleur De Lys, Lancaster Rose, Thistle and
Shamrock depict the involvement of French,
English, Scottish and Irish settlers in
founding the city of Montreal.
The white pine in the 2017 design is an
homage to the indigenous native american
tribes.

16
Keith Richards claims that there is particular meaning behind the name of his
famous five stringed guitar. He chose the name because it was an improbable
name and he did not imagine that anyone would have that name. Hence,
when he called for his guitar on stage, everyone would know what he was
talking about.
He got this name from a character in an English Classic. The character was
modeled on the author’s father and is now used to refer to someone who is
“poor but lives in optimistic expectation of better fortune”
What name, and from which classic?

Micawber from
David
Copperfield

17
As the WW II was drawing to a close, the exiled royals of Holland ordered a
railway strike across the country. In retaliation, the Nazis cut off the food
supply to its most populous regions. This caused a severe shortage of food,
even forcing people to grind tulips into flour. However, the conditions for a
certain group of people, known as banana babies then, actually improved
during the famine. These children usually suffered from diarrhoea, weakness
and malnutrition, but these stopped during this time. This was among the first
hints that lead a pediatrician to investigate the role of ______ in causing the
above malady.
FITB and solve for malady.

18
Which 2002 Marxist work, which provides an analysis of the ideological and political responses to the
9/11 attacks, takes its title from the following excerpt from a 1981 book:
If once we were able to view the Borges fable in which the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so
detailed that it ends up covering the territory exactly [...] this fable has now come full circle for us, and
possesses nothing but the discrete charm of second-order __________ [...] It is the real, and not the map,
whose vestiges persist here and there in the _______ that are no longer those of the Empire, but ours. The
______ __ ___ ____ itself.
The title of the book is 7 words long, the last four words being the last set of blanks. First three
words should be worked out from an entertainment context.
The 1981 book is by a philosopher. So is the 2002 book, technically speaking. Give the writer of 2002
book.

Slavoj Žižek’s Welcome to
the Desert of the Real

19
Boom is a startup which aims to bring back something that has been
inaccessible for most people for a while now.
The startup feels that technology in the field has advanced sufficiently
enough that this can be brought back in and made commercially viable.
Among companies which are looking to purchase their product is The
Virgin Group.
What do they want to bring back?

20
The FDA requires that all products that market itself as having this
MUST contain milk or milk derivatives. This is an issue for a very
popular consumable as one part of it is popularly denoted with this
term. However, it is likely made of sugar, palm and/or canola oil,
high fructose corn syrup, soy lecithin, and artificial flavor.
Hence, as a workaround, they use an alternative, more French
sounding, term to describe this part of their product.
What term? Which product?

Why Oreos
have Creme
and not Cream

21
This 1906 painting is titled Port of _______. Name
the painter who made this; he founded an art
movement around the early 20th century.
The city takes its name from the legend of a
monster Antigoon who demanded payment for
boat plying services across a river, failure to
meet which it would sever one's hand and
throw it into the river. A local hero cut the
monster's hand off and threw it in the river
lending the city its name. Work with the Dutch
words for hand and river and name this city.

22
Recent studies show that the driver for variation across
geographies was not just one environmental factor. A nutrient
critical for bone development is deficient in a cereal rich diet.
Hence additional modifications were necessary to combat it,
furthering the contrast.
What are we talking about?

23
Many cartoon characters are
depicted as wearing a tie and
collar. A prime example is Yogi
Bear, who wears a collar and tie,
despite not wearing anything
else. This feature was more to
reduce production costs than for
aesthetics. How?

This allowed animators to keep his body static,
redrawing only his head in each frame when
he spoke — a method that reduced the
number of drawings needed for a
seven-minute cartoon from around 14,000 to
around 2,000.

24
The Great Divorce by C S Lewis talks about how
people tend to choose one fate over another.
The characters take a trip from one place to the
foothills of another, where they are asked if they
would like to enter. Most of them deny, giving
various excuses.
The title is a reference to an 18th century work
of literature, and Lewis has said that this book
was almost written as a counter to that work.
What work?

William Blake’s
Marriage of Heaven
and Hell

The Ground
Beneath Her
Feet
55 + 15

➔ A variation on the Orpheus/Eurydice myth with rock music
replacing Orpheus' lyre
➔ On the love of two men, Ormus Cama and Umeed
Merchant (the narrator), for the same woman, Vina Apsara.
Ormus and Vina are rockstars.
➔ Provides a background and alternate history to the entire
1950s–1990s period of the growth of rock music.
➔ Makes references

1
This English word which means to lose one’s
bearings or or to cause one to lose one’s bearings
has a nautical etymology when a seaman’s failure
to keep track of one particular direction resulted
in his getting lost.
Which word? 5 points.

2
Ormus Cama is named so after his devout mother Spenta
wanted to name her after Hormuz or Ormazd, local
derivatives of the name of a god, which his father Darius
Xerxes Cama being a classicist Latinizes to Ormus. Which
god? 2.5 points.
Which 20th century rockstar with a wide vocal range
served as one of inspirations for the character? 2.5 points.

3
This is Catherine of Braganza as
part of whose dowry upon her
marriage to Charles II were given
the seven islands of Bombay to
the British.
What entity created in 1863 was
named for her as she was
married to King Charles II then? 5
points.

4
This country’s English name has two etymologies: it could be
derived from Ancient Greek and Latin roots which mean home of
the ka of Ptah (or) it could be derived from a Greek root that
referred to the country’s position below the water body it is
located below. Which water body? 2.5 points.
An English exonym of an ethnic group, living mostly in Europe
and the Americas and originating from the northern regions of
the Indian subcontinent, could be derived from the same roots as
the above country. Which exonym? 2.5 points.

5
Ormus Cama has a disturbed childhood. One of his eyelids has a purple
blemish on it; he thinks of this to be the embryo of his still-dead twin
Gayomart. Having been neglected by his parents, Ormus spends his
time lying in his room and develops a pastime of his own: he covers his
one good eye, the one without the purple mark, takes light inside
through a slit by nearly closing the other eye, inverts the room inside his
head, imagining the fan on the ceiling to be a flower, sits under it and
thinks.
What does he call this pastime, punning on his surname with a two
word phrase which means dark room in Latin? 5 points.

6
It is said Gayomart sings to Ormus in Ormus’ dreams and these are songs in the real
world that arise out of other artists in a fixed number of days. This leaves Ormus furious
as he heard every rock’n’roll song ever created being sung to him by Gayo inside his
head around a couple of years ago. All music arises from him; Gayo sings all songs ever
but just the vowel sounds in tune in a faint manner. As Vina finds this notion tough to
believe, Ormus makes up words for the vowel sounds he hears from Gayo and sings to
her: the ganja, my friend, is glowing in the tin, the dancer is glowing with her skin, the
gardener is mowing with a grin. Sure enough, around a couple of years later, they hear
it finally in a 1962 single, following which Vina believes Ormus to be music.
Which 1962 single? How many days in advance does Ormus hear every song ever? This
is a literary reference. 2.5*2 points.

7
An institution in Bombay was formed in
1857 by a businessman and
philanthropist who had then donated a
lakh for its endowment. They then had
to name it after the guy. Which insti? 2.5
points.
Shown is its first Dean, John Lockwood,
with his son, who was born in the
campus. Name the son. 2.5 points.

8
The name of the record company that protagonist Ormus
Cama signs on to is of an island supposedly in modern day
Georgia which in Greek myth is said to be the place of
residence of a certain object.
Name the island. 5 points. Fill in the title of the following
Dali painting and tell us the object: Dali's Hand Drawing
Back the _________ ________ in the Form of a Cloud to Show
Gala. 5 points.

blowin’ in the wind.
1001 days.

jj school of arts.
rudyard kipling.

25
Les Mandarins is a 1954 roman à clef which won the Prix Goncourt.
In the novel, Henri Perron is the editor of the leftist newspaper L'Espoir. In love with
Paula Mareuil for the past ten years, he is now unhappily attached. He primarily sees
himself as a writer and struggles with his increasing involvement in the political arena.
Robert Dubreuilh is the founder and leader of the SRL, a liberal, non-Communist
political group. He is partly responsible for Henri's literary success, and the two are
close personal friends. Anne Dubreuilh is the wife of Robert. She is a practicing
psychoanalyst. She has an affair with the American writer Lewis Brogan. Her reflections
on the lives of the other characters comprise a large portion of the text.
Unlock this roman à clef, aka solve for Henri, Anna and Robert.

26
The Harmonized Tariff Schedule in U.S. law distinguished between two types
of action figures for determining tariffs: dolls, which are defined to include
human figures, and non-human creatures, both of which have different tax
rates.
An entity’s toy subsidiary was arguing to change the status by which its
products were classified as, for maximising profits. This move faced a lot of
backlash from the public as it was hypocritical, considering what the
characters are trying to achieve.
Which entity arguing for what?

Marvel arguing for
Non-Human status
for the X-Men

27
John Odom was a baseball player playing for an affiliate of the San Francisco giants. The
Giants released Odom during spring training 2008. He then signed in May with the
Calgary Vipers of the Golden Baseball League, but a mark on his criminal record, a 1999
conviction for aggravated assault when he was a minor, prevented his entry into
Canada. The Vipers offered Odom to the Laredo Broncos for a Bronco player, but that
player refused to move to Calgary. The Broncos then offered $1000 cash for Odom, but
the Vipers felt cash deals made the team appear financially unstable. The teams then
came to an agreement on May 20 to make a material trade.
This caused him to be the butt of many jokes, with people calling him something, and
playing a particular theme song whenever he took the field.
What was he traded for?

28
From the guy's production Time's Running,
adaptation of a play from the end of the 16th
century. 3 parts.
Who is the woman?
What role is she playing?
What role did she play in a TV series from
1967? The actress who played this role in a
2012 movie might lead to this playwright’s rival.

Eartha Kitt.
Helen of Troy in
Faustus.
Catwoman.

29
As a countermeasure due to sokaiya, each year, companies have to
select a common date. In 1997, Nomura’s whole board of directors
had to resign because of its connections with sokaiya. Earlier
countermeasures made sure that thousands of companies choose the
same date and keep it very short. Nowadays, due to sokaiya’s decline
and an increase in number of companies, the companies can choose
different dates though it happens around the same time.
What is sokaiya? How does keeping a common day work?

Sokaiya is Yakuza’s
organised racketeering.
By keeping the same day as the Annual Shareholding
Meeting, they reduce the chance of the Yakuza humiliating
them at the meeting because the Yakuza cannot be
everywhere at the same time.

30
He was lazy when it came to titling his works; most of them are simply
names of the protagonists. Very few are metaphors for the plot, such as
the one involving a couple with two strong-willed people. Some refer to the
point in time the plots take place in.
One such work is set about a few days from a seasonal celebration. Given
he had to churn out these works at a frantic pace, when he handed over
the draft and was asked for its title, he replied dismissively with the title we
now know this by (3 points) and a three word phrase, which was mistaken
to be an alternate title (7 points).
What two titles?

The Twelfth
Night or
What You Will

31
The Way to Paradise is a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa. The story is a historical double
biography of two people.
The first person is repelled by sex, detests her husband and later abandons him to fight
for women’s rights and workers’ rights. She ends up being one of the founders of
feminism.
The second person is her grandson whom she never got to meet, as she died before he
was born. His life too follows a similar path, he abandons his wife and children, and his
job as a stockbroker in Paris, to pursue his passion of art.
Name both people.

32. Solve for X, Y. Put funda behind the PS.
‘When we read about X’s Birmingham concert when he urged support for Enoch Powell,
we nearly puked. Come on X… you’ve been taking too much of the Daily Express stuff
and you know you can’t handle it. Own up. Half your music is black. You’re rock music’s
biggest colonist. You’re a good musician but where would you be without Blues and
R&B?
You’ve got to fight the racist poison otherwise you degenerate into the sewer with the
rats and the money men who ripped off rock culture with their cheque books…
We want to organise a rank and file movement against the racist poison music. We urge
support for Y.
Ps: Who shot the Sheriff, X? It sure as hell wasn’t you!’.

Eric Clapton.
Rock against Racism.
His first hit was a cover of
Bob Marley’s I Shot the
Sheriff.

33
In 1969, a thief stole a work of art titled, “History of the Universe”. It was painted by
Dave Richards for a sum of $500. In the psychedelic fashion of the time, it involved
images of ___ _______ and the _______ _______, California landscapes, the Eye of God,
The owners’ astrological sign (Capricorn), skulls, mushrooms, butterflies, and more.
Realising that it was too easily recognisable, he tried to paint over it. However, he
was busted before he could finish. Fortunately, as Richards had the foresight to
paint a layer of clear coat over the artwork, no permanent damage was done.
What had the thief stolen?

34
We're looking for a four letter word and a six letter word
which both derive from the same Latin word meaning
'deaf, mute' which in turn came from Greek and Arabic
for 'speechless, irrational.' The bigger word means 'out of
tune,' deriving from the common Latin root of both the
words.
What two words?

35
Chronologically, there are two, the former refers to a birth while the
latter is more dramatic: it has an element of finality to it. Thus, he
found it to be an apt imagery for his 1920 work's title. Name this
work.
The four words that follow the most famous phrase from the above
work is the title of a 2007 memoir of paranoid schizophrenia by Elyn
Saks, a professor of behavioural sciences. These words refer to the
lack of order in her scrambled paranoid mind. Name this work too.

Yeat’s The Second Coming.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
...

36
The music for this song came from the opera Orpheus in the underworld
where it was played while a man descended into hell. It was soon adapted for
music halls where the associated dance routine became infamous for being
one of the most difficult and physically exhausting routines.
Sometimes, a dancer would stand close to a man and bet that she could take
off one of his articles of clothing without using her hands. She would then
proceed to do so by performing the most iconic step of the dance. This, along
with providing a visual tease, would also warn the man to expect something if
he were to overstep his boundary.
What dance? What does the dancer do?

Can-can. Kick the patron’s hat off.

IITM Open Quiz 2018 Finals

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to IITM Open Quiz 2018 Finals (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

IITM Open Quiz 2018 Finals